I was wearing my favorite shirt — sleeveless, white eyelet lace. It was a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka.

Bella Swan, p. 3

When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I didn't see it as an omen — just unavoidable. I'd already said my goodbyes to the sun.

Bella Swan, p. 5

It was beautiful, of course; I couldn't deny that. Everything was green: the trees, their trunks covered with moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of it, the ground covered with ferns. Even the air filtered down greenly through the leaves. It was too green — an alien planet.

Bella Swan about Forks, Washington, p. 8

Good luck tended to avoid me.

Bella Swan, p. 11

Where was the feel of the institution? ... Where were the chain link fences, the metal detectors?

Bella Swan about Forks High School, p. 13

I can do this, I lied to myself feebly. No one was going to bite me.

Bella Swan, p.13

I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a lot.

Bella Swan, p. 15

It looked like clouds and a sense of humor didn't mix. A few months of this and I'd forget how to use sarcasm.

Bella Swan, p. 16

Every one of them was chalky pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town. Paler than me, the albino.

As far as I was aware, he'd never shot the gun on the job. But he kept it ready. When I came here as a child, he would always remove the bullets as soon as he walked in the door. I guess he considered me old enough now not to shoot myself by accident, and not depressed enough to shoot myself on purpose.

Bella Swan about Charlie Swan, p. 35

His hair was dripping wet, disheveled — even so, he looked like he'd just finished shooting a commercial for hair gel. His dazzling face was friendly, open, a slight smile on his flawless lips. But his eyes were careful.

Bella Swan about Edward Cullen, p. 43

"Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked. I looked up to see him smiling a crooked smile so beautiful that I could only stare at him like an idiot.
"Or I could start, if you wish." The smile faded; he was obviously wondering if I was mentally competent.

Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, p. 44

When he touched me, it stung my hand as if an electric current had passed through us.

I felt excited to go to school, and that scared me. I knew it wasn't the stimulating learning environment I was anticipating, or seeing my new set of friends. If I was being honest with myself, I knew I was eager to get to school because I would see Edward Cullen. And that was very, very stupid.

Bella Swan, p. 54

I distracted myself [...] by thinking about Mike and Eric, and the obvious difference in how teenage boys responded to me here. [...] Perhaps it was because I was a novelty here, where novelties were few and far between. Possibly my crippling clumsiness was seen as endearing rather than pathetic, casting me as a damsel in distress. [...] I wasn't sure if I didn't prefer being ignored.

"Bella?" I turned and he was leaning toward me, his pale, glorious face just inches from mine. My heart stopped beating.
"Sleep well," he said. His breath blew in my face, stunning me.

Edward Cullen and Bella Swan, p. 193

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was part of him — and I didn't know how dominant that part might be — that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

"It's twilight," Edward murmured. [...] "It's the safest time of day for us," he said, answering the unspoken question in my eyes. "The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way ... the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don't you think?" He smiled wistfully.
"I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars."

Our relationship couldn’t continue to balance, as it did, on the point of a knife. We would fall off one edge or the other, depending entirely on his decision, or his instincts. My decision was made, made before I’d ever consciously chosen, and I was committed to seeing it through. Because there was nothing more terrifying to me, more excruciating, than the thought of turning away from him. It was an impossibility.

"I'm the world's best predator, aren't I? Everything about me invites you in — my voice, my face, even my smell. As if I need any of that!"

Edward Cullen to Bella Swan p. 264

"You are exactly my brand of heroin."

Edward Cullen to Bella Swan, p. 268

"Bella, I don't know if I could live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don't know how it's tortured me. [...] The thought of you still, white, cold ... to never see you blush scarlet again, or see that flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my pretenses ... it would be unendurable. [...] You are the most important thing to me now. The most important thing to me ever."

Edward Cullen, p. 273

"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb..." he murmured. I looked away, hiding my eyes as I thrilled to the word.
"What a stupid lamb," I sighed.
"What a sick, masochistic lion."

"If I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I'm not ashamed of it."

Edward Cullen to Bella Swan, p. 294

"Bring on the shackles. I'm your prisoner."

Edward Cullen to Bella Swan, p. 302

"For almost ninety years I've walked among my kind, and yours ... all the time thinking I was complete in myself, not realizing what I was seeking. And not finding anything, because you weren't alive yet."

Edward Cullen to Bella Swan, p. 304

"Yeah, it's an off day when I don't get somebody telling me how edible I smell."

"It's been almost a century that Edward's been alone. Now he's found you. You can't see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you?"

"Do you want me to bolt the doors so you can massacre the unsuspecting townsfolk?" I whispered conspiratorially.
"And where do you fit into that scheme?" He glared.
"Oh, I'm with the vampires, of course."

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, p. 487

"Twilight, again. Another ending. No matter how perfect the day is, it always has to end."